Jesuit student is headed to National Geographic Bee for a third year

There are two cities that continue to haunt 14-year-old geography whiz Anthony Stoner: Delft and Karbala. Those are the answers to the questions that eliminated him last year at the National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C. But next week, the three-time state geography champion and Gretna resident will have one more shot at representing Louisiana, and ideally, making the top 10. Anthony's mother, Jill Stoner, also will never forget that Delft is located in the Netherlands, and that Karbala is a city in Iraq.

View full sizeMatthew Hinton, The Times-PicayuneEighth-grade Jesuit student Anthony Stoner has a 'practice corner' with atlases and geography books at his home in Gretna.

"He was always fascinated with geography," Stoner said of the Jesuit High School eighth-grader. She recalled watching the presidential campaign with Anthony when he was just 2. He would point to a map of the United States, Stoner said, identifying each state where the candidates were from.

Stoner also remembers a game Anthony's sister would play with him when he was 4. Five years his senior, his sister would spin the globe, Stoner said, and point to a country. Anthony would then describe the animals that lived there, mostly learned from watching a favorite television program on wildlife.

And while the family's four kids waited for their meals, Stoner said she found placemats to be a "wonderful learning tool." The kids often ate atop colorful maps of the country and the world.

"I'm not a tiger mom," Stoner said, but she encourages her children's varied pursuits. In order for Anthony to compete this year, she and her son persistently petitioned Jesuit leaders to host their own bee--the only way for Anthony to make it to the state competition.

Regardless of what happens, they said, they are thrilled to embark on an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington for the third year in a row.

Studying the world

In 2010, Anthony said, he ranked somewhere in the 30s. In 2011, he made it to the 20s.

The competition takes the 54 winners, in fourth through eighth grade, from each state's annual geography bee, as well as the District of Colombia, the Atlantic Territories, the Pacific Territories and the Department of Defense schools.

Anthony said he doesn't really have any particular tricks or techniques: He just spends time looking at the maps, atlases and books stacked in piles in his "study corner." "The CIA World Factbook" has been a particularly valuable resource, his mother said. After Anthony's first national bee appearance, he created a study binder, filled with tracings of maps and lists of facts. In addition, Anthony considers his memorization skills to be an asset.

The knowledge required to compete goes way beyond the physical characteristics of a map. Geography is a wide-open subject, Anthony said, and questions can cover topics such as climate, religion, wildlife and exports.

The gender gap

While the backgrounds and ethnicities of the contestants vary widely, Jill Stoner said, an interesting trend she has noticed over the years is that the competitions are overwhelmingly dominated by boys.

Since the national bee began in 1989, there have just been two female winners.

The gender gap was so glaring that the National Geographic Society commissioned a study in 1996 to try to figure out why the competition drew so few girls.

The results of the study revealed a variety of factors. The most significant was the difference in spatial skills between boys and girls.

According to Lynn S. Liben, co-author of the study, research on cognition shows that boys tend to have higher mental rotation skills, allowing them to better imagine what things look like reversed or upside down. This helps them interpret maps, Liben concluded. Other research suggested that the toys boys traditionally play with and the material they read may lead to better geography skills.

In the Stoner family, it's dad Jim who navigates on the road, Anthony and Jill said. And there's no talking GPS device in the car; Jim Stoner prefers paper maps.

Ready for competition

The final round of the competition, featuring the top 10 students and moderated by "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek, will air on the National Geographic Channel on May 24.

In addition to his mom, Anthony's dad, his 10-year-old brother and his 19-year-old sister will all be in Washington to support him. His grandmother will be cheering for him from her home in Maryland.

The stakes for next week's bee are high. The champion receives a $25,000 college scholarship and trip for two to the Galapagos Islands. The second- and third-place winners also receive money for college.